Raphtalia smiled. The people were talking to each other, dancing to the music that some of the townsfolk had started playing and not worrying about their meal for once. The children were running around excited, taking a bite before starting to play again and no one was stopping them.

It was nice to see the town come alive again.

When she had first entered the town with Mr Adrian and the rest of their group they had been greeted with suspicious looks, the children had been hidden away and fear. She'd felt a little bad about that but after Mr Adrian and Trystan had healed most of their injured their mood had changed. Some of them were still worried but the ambience had improved a lot. The feast that Mr Adrian and Mr Oldrin had set up just enhanced that good mood further. Everyone was celebrating, it was like a festival, just without any games or merchant stands.

Raphtalia had been staying at Rifana's side, making sure that she ate something, hoping but not expecting that she'd feel a little bit better. For a time her expectations had come true, until Trystan had dragged Rifana and Isis towards the town's children, asked Adrian for a ball, and started playing.

Raphtalia smiled a little as Rifana played with them, the shadows on her face vanishing for once. She almost looked like what she used to before.

"Miss Raphtalia," said Mr Oldrin, walking up to her with a glass full of water, "Have you seen Sir Adrian?"

Raphtalia greeted the man and found herself looking around to see if Mr Adrian was nearby. She checked at the tables where the food was laid out, it had been where he had been standing in the beginning, but found nothing. A quick look around the rest of the area confirmed her suspicions. He wasn't here, or to be more accurate, he wasn't visible here.

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, "I'm not sure where he went but he'll be back soon. I'm sure of it. Is it something critical?"

The old man shook his head, "Not at all young lady. I just wanted to thank him," he said, "I haven't seen my people like this in...weeks. It's more than I could have hoped for. Please ask him to meet me when you see him."

She nodded and he gave her a deep bow before walking towards a small cluster of people. Raphtalia frowned, scanned the area once more, and then checked on Rifana, Trystan and Isis -they were fine- before starting to look for Mr Adrian.

Raphtalia started to move, trying to think about what Mr Adrian would do. She knew that for all that he could talk to people, he didn't like doing it. He would be away from most people in the party so she started to move away from the centre of the celebration, nodding at the greetings and thanks sent her way and tried to figure out where he could be.

It was when she was reasonably far from everyone else that he found her.

"Looking for me Raphtalia?" he asked, appearing next to her without warning.

She didn't react beyond turning towards him. At this point, his sudden appearances and disappearances were something comforting.

"Mr Adrian," she said, "Mr Oldrin wanted to speak to you."

He raised his eyebrow, "I assume that he wants to thank me again," he said like it was ridiculous.

She nodded and waited for him to disappear, but he just turned to look at the celebration, the flickering fires giving his expression a very sad look.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, it was a question without thought, but it was one that she was happy to have asked. Mr Adrian had helped these people, dozens of injured people were well again, they had a medicine and food stockpile and Mr Adrian had promised to hunt down the nearby monsters. Ayrith would be okay soon but despite this Adrian had looked very sad and quite angry as he looked around town.

He sighed and turned towards her, "I don't understand them." he admitted, "no, I suppose its' Oldrin that I don't understand. How can he be even slightly happy with this, his people are still about to die. All we've done here today has delayed it slightly...it just doesn't make sense. Hell, shouldn't he be suspicious about the human who just decided to help him for nothing?"

Raphtalia felt a little odd realizing just how cynical Mr Adrian really was. A lot of things made sense, his caution when it came to entering both this town and the previous one, the reason why he always made sure that she never faced a living monster that was truly dangerous, even why he didn't want her to fight despite leveling her up. She didn't think he was scared...but he was someone who was always thinking about the worst.

"You're not going to stop helping them," she pointed out after a moment of thought, "Mr Adrian, I know that you must have at least some ideas on how to help them in the future as well. Maybe he's happy because he knows that."

He snorted and then waved his hand dismissively, "Ideas? Sure I have a few, but it's nothing concrete and even then I can't imagine anything that can keep them safe from the Slave Hunters in the long run. Not when they've got the King and practically every nearby noble family prepared to hunt them down."

Raphtalia felt a little off-balance, "the King?" she asked.

The Sword Hero turned to look her straight in the eye, "Rabier confirmed my suspicions. Aultcray gave a direct order to see the Demi-humans in the Seaetto Region executed or enslaved. It's why there was such a massive response and why the Lord of the Region found himself killed," his voice was calm, but she could hear the undertone of fury, "combine that with the monsters from the wave and, well...it was basically is a death sentence for every single person in this territory. I have no way to stop that right now...well, not without going to extremes."

Raphtalia was suddenly reminded of the fact that Rabier had found a recording in a crystal ball, a recording of her home being destroyed, she swallowed once she realized that they must have planned the attack on her home otherwise they would have never known that they needed proof. It had to have been sanctioned otherwise they would not have wantedto keep proof.

She wanted to laugh or cry or something. The King wanted them dead.

"Then...what are we going to do?" she asked, her voice a whisper.

He sighed, all the fury and frustration leaving him, "I'm trying out a few things," he admitted, tossing a small object into the soil near them and then pouring a liquid from a bottle "this is one of them."

Raphtalia frowned and looked carefully at the colourless liquid that was clearly notwater and the small object, which was a seed of some kind, nothing happen for a long moment. Then, in an instant, as if time had suddenly started to work again at a hundred times the speed, a small plant emerged. It took seconds to go from a seedling to a plant that was half her height and less than a minute to become as tall as she was laden with fruits and flowers.

She turned to Mr Adrian who was looking at the plant with a focused look, his hands twitched this way and that, and with every subtle movement, the plant grew.

He was controlling the plant's growth.

"Mr Adrian?" she asked, "what…" Unsure of what he was doing and what to ask him she just trailed off but he seemed to understand.

"Food, water, security." he stated, "these are the absolute basics that any group of people need. With the right types of plants, it is possible to obtain all three and I have several skills and plant types inside the Swords related to plant modification." He shrugged, "I still have to experiment a bit more but I'm fairly certain that I could make a fence-like structure which could double as a food and water supply with a bit more work."

"That's amazing," she said, completely meaning it. Raphtalia hadn't even been thinking about how they could help the people here long after they had left the town but Mr Adrian already had a solution.

He made a dismissive sound, "It's a possible solution that will work well for food and water. Security, however, is the main issue and I don't have many good ideas for it. I plan to clean up the Seaetto Region of the monsters within the next two or three days so they aren't a concern, but the human hunters won't go away for good just because I hunt them down once. They have their orders." He said orders like it was a curse.

"I'm sure you'll think of something." she said firmly, "And by the time you're done with the trees and the hunting I'm sure this town will have months to think of something even without our help."

He looked at her with surprise writ over his face, for a moment he said nothing then he smiled and looked at the stars. He was silent long enough for her to assume that the conversation was over. Then, "Thank you," he said, his voice softer, "I've missed having someone who's willing to cut down on my pessimism."

She wasn't sure what to say but he simply cut down the plant in front of them and vanished an instant later after nodding at her as a farewell. Raphtalia smiled a little, happy to have helped him. She started to walk back towards the celebration, she needed to make sure that Rifana was okay.

It was only after she saw Mr Oldrin that she remembered why she had been looking for him and turned back to find him again.

The older woman in front of her winced as she was pushed off balance by Raphtalia's strike. Ms Nicol raised her hand, it was the signal they had agreed upon before that called for a stop.

She moved her spear over to her right hand and then rotated her wrists, before clenching her fists and relaxing it."You hit very, very hard," she stated, "but you need to be more aware of where you're landing your attacks if I had enough strength to counter that you then you would have been in a very bad position. Try doing something like this," she said while walking over to Raphtalia and showing her what she should have done.

Raphtalia nodded, Mr Adrian had warned her that her stats were about equal to a level 60's. Miss Nicol was only level 23. There was no chance that she could stand up to her stats. Even now Raphtalia had held back heavily. If she hadn't then Ms Nicol would probably have been hurt badly.

They tried a few more times. Nicol giving her advice on her stance, footwork and the way she was holding her blade before they sparred but eventually, the wolf demi-human frowned and sighed.

"You're too strong for me," she admitted, "it won't be good for you to learn the basics while holding back this much. Let's make sure that your form is good and that you can deflect my hits and then you could try sparring with Mr Adrian or someone else who is closer to your Level."

"Yes Ms Nicol," she stated firmly, deciding to ask Mr Adrian about sparring with him, Isis or Trystan after they were finished here. She was fairly certain that she'd have more than enough energy to spar with them. She wasn't feeling even a little tired despite the fact that they had been practising for nearly an hour and a half.

Raphtalia had asked Ms Nicol to help train her after she had a second conversation with Mr Adrian last night. A conversation about her fighting with him, Isis and Trystan. Honestly, she had expected him to refuse or at least try to convince her not to fight. She had seen how much he worried about Trystan and Isis and how reluctant he had been to have them fight the waves despite the fact that as the Sword Hero he needed to fight the waves. To her surprise, he had nodded, asked her a few questions and then commanded her to fulfil a couple of conditions.

She was happy to note that he had only asked her to get some training with her preferred weapon, magic and then made sure that she was certain that this was what she wanted. Mr Adrian had even gone up to Mr Oldrin and had spoken to him about the trees and going out to hunt the nearby monsters. The old man's gratitude had been effusive and he had been more than happy to ask Nicol to train her in using a weapon and training her magic.

Of course, Mr Adrian had warned her to be careful and had noted that he had only agreed because this meant that they would stay for longer.

Still, her progress was excellent from what Ms Nicol had said. It had been nice to know that she was genuinely talented at using a sword...even if felt a little odd to play the role of a Swordswoman in a party with the Sword Hero.

So she practised and did so for several hours. Ms Nicol eventually left to fulfil her duties as a guard and Raphtalia eventually took a small break from her practice to drink some water, have a bite of the leftovers from last night and read her Grimoire.

Raphtalia did her best to study and was making steady progress with the basic light spell, "I, the source of all power, who has studied the laws of nature, command you. Zuerst Light."

Raphtalia kept her focus on her magic power, trying her best to keep it at the forefront of her mind, as the words just entered her mind as if they had always been there. And to her surprise a small floating light actually winked into existence, she smiled at it and then winced as it suddenly brightened and blinded her before vanishing.

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes a little, trying to make the spots in her vision go away. Raphtalia stared at her Grimoire after her eyes were back to normal, a little annoyed at the odd mixture of failure and success that she had just had. Still, she took a deep breath and then started to try again when she heard the dull roar of nearly a hundred people cheering at a distance.

Raphtalia looked towards the direction of the sound curiously and was rewarded by witnessing the rapid growth of a massive tree that towered over the town. It had dozens of low hanging branches on the part that was pointing at the town and none on the opposite side, and she could tell that it was full of fruits.

She smiled as she saw Mr Adrian fly up to one of the higher branches, pick up some of the fruits and then move back down. Another cheer went up soon after and Raphtalia had to admit to some curiosity, after all, she had never seen the finished product nor had she sampled the fruits.

It didn't take her very long to reach the site where Mr Adrian was planting the trees, it was a little far from the borders of the town, likely Mr Adrian just being cautious, but by the time she had reached there, he had already planted three trees and was working on the fourth.

Mr Oldrin spotted her before anyone else, "Young lady!" he said, his voice excited and disbelieving, two different types of fruits in his arms, but before he could say more, one of the children arrived, dragging her friend along with herself and started babbling at Raphtalia after offering her some of the fruit.

"Thank you," she said with a smile, patting the girl's head, taking a bite and then blinking at the odd sour-sweet taste of the yellow fruit. It was soft, yet firm enough that it was easy to hold, it felt dry but a single bite unleashed a lot of flavours. Raphtalia had never tasted anything like it...though given that Mr Adrian had somehow createdthe tree that bore it she shouldn't have been surprised.

Raphtalia nodded at Mr Oldrin before walking up to Mr Adrian who was carefully observing the planted trees, manipulating their growth so that there was some space in between them, it took her a moment to realize that he was making a gate.

"Raphtalia," he said in lieu of greeting her, without turning around, "Is there something you need?"

She could tell that he was still a little distracted so she just shook her head and observed. He nodded despite not looking at her and continued his work, he finished his modifications and she noted that it would probably take another ten or so trees before the entire town was covered and so she followed him along with the rest of the townsfolk as he planted the trees' in a circular pattern around town. He made sure to have only one gate and that there were several locations for sentries to be placed.

Once they were done Mr Oldrin walked up to Mr Adrian who was still carefully observing the final plant he had placed and bowed deeply, "Thank you, Sir," he said, "We can never repay you for your kindness. If there is anything at all that we can do…"

The old man trailed off and Adrian turned his full attention towards the wolf type demi-human, who stood straight in response, the rest of the town silent and attentive as the two men spoke.

"We have already come to an agreement," reminded Mr Adrian, "training for Raphtalia, information and a chance to rest here should we decide to return in the future you need not worry about any other cost."

His voice was firm but not cold and she could see the people around her calm down, "I'll leave some herbicide that can remove the plants and a few seeds that will grow rapidly, you won't be able to shape the trees as I have but you can at least place a stopgap if one or two of these trees are destroyed." he continued.

Mr Oldrin bowed deeply again, "Thank you." he said and Mr Adrian nodded.

"We'll be going hunting today Oldrin," he said, "I'd like all the information you can give me on the terrain and the monsters, both new and old, as soon as possible."

"Of course," said the town leader, "Please allow me to summon our hunters, they can tell you all you need to know." then he turned to his people and continued, "Everyone, please begin to harvest some of the fruit…"

While Mr Oldrin gave his orders Adrian walked up to her and asked, "Was there something you needed?"

Raphtalia nodded, "I just wanted to know whenwe'll be leaving so that I can get ready."

Mr Adrian frowned, "An hour or two," he said, "I want to make sure that the plants behave within my expectations and then set out some food for the people here to have a decent amount in their storage. We can leave after that. Make sure to get Rifana ready, I'll deal with Isis and Trystan."

Raphtalia nodded immediately and then hesitated before she said, "About Rifana…"

"I want to level her up," he said calmly, "It'll be safer for her and help her healing if she's at a high level. I promise that we'll keep her safe, the monsters around here are much weaker than in Dragon Territory."

Raphtalia swallowed her doubts and held onto that promise, "All right," she said.

He smiled and said, "We'll keep her safe." he reiterated and she nodded, surprised that she believed him.

Raphtalia found it eerie how different the world around her looked when she was expected to fight the monsters that populated it. She hadn't realized it until now but she had simply taken it for granted that Adrian, Isis and Trystan would defeat any of the monsters that would be encountered by their group. She didn't think it was an incorrect belief. Adrian had taken care to ensure that no monster that could pose a threat would be alive in her presence, but it was a reminder of how much she had come to depend on Mr Adrian even before she had realized that he was a nice person.

It was a little late at night and it had been around three or four hours since they had taken their leave from the town. After Mr Adrian had confirmed that the trees he had used to create a wall around town were fine and had Isis test them out to see how much damage they could endure, a lot as it turned out, they had arranged for lunch, left several weeks worth of food and then said their goodbyes for the moment.

She had felt a little bad about leaving them behind without making absolutely sure that they were safe but Mr Adrian had reassured her that once he got to level 50 and unlocked a teleportation skill they could return here at their leisure and ensure that the people of Ayrith were safe and sound.

At the moment Mr Adrian and Isis were preparing to test out a Combination Skill and both of them had their eyes closed as they concentrated on their magic. Rifana was sitting down in the floating Disc that had once carried her and the Filolials when they had been young and Trystan was standing next to her in his Filolial form watching the two members of their party who were preparing to attack attentively.

"We are the source of all power and so we command the world. Obey. One Hundred Lightning Strikes," both of them intoned in perfect synchronization as if they had practised it a hundred times. Raphtalia waited for something to happen, and for an instant, she wondered if something had gone wrong before Mr Adrian held his sword up, the tip pointing towards the clear sky, and exhaled loudly.

At first, a single sword, wreathed in lightning, emerged and quickly moved upwards until all she could follow was the bright light that the lightning emitted but as it went higher and higher the brightness intensified as one Sword became two, two turned into four and they kept on dividinguntil the sky was lit up with a hundred swords covered in lightning.

Mr Adrian swung downwards and the swords moved. Raphtalia could only see bright streaks of light moving across the sky and soon enough they were out of her line of sight, but she could hear the results. Screams and screeches of pain rang out and were silenced mere instants after they were first born. Bright bursts of light would flash out from distant locations, she couldn't see what was happening but she could guess.

Raphtalia felt a small surge of pity for the helpless monsters that had just been slaughtered. That pity died a quick death after she remembered that these were the same monsters spawned from the Wave.

"That worked quite well." noted Mr Adrian, "we'll have to try that out with a Thousand Swords and possibly Ten Thousand Swords should the cost be reasonable. It'll make a good move at the beginning of a Wave. How bad is the MP cost?"

Isis frowned, closing her eyes, "I can do that around fifteen-no twenty, around twenty more times Father. Anything more and I'll be exhausted."

Mr Adrian nodded slowly, "We'll have to see how much your reserves improve with your Class Up and the Levels you'll gain afterwards. Still, it seems that this is a pretty good Anti-Army move. We'll practice it again if we find an area with a lot of monsters...actually, this will be very good at dealing with underwater monsters. We'll have to try it out when we get to the coast."

Isis smiled up at Mr Adrian, "Yes Father," she said, happy to have been praised.

Raphtalia felt a little bittersweet. The lightning reminded her a lot of Sadeena. She had always been really, really good at lightning magic. Raphtalia remembered when Sadeena had created a huge lightning bolt and slammed it into the ocean so that she could get the fish more easily. Papa had been really mad that Sadeena had been lazy instead of fishing properly.

They continued to move after that but it was nearly half an hour later that they got anywhere near their next monster. Mr Adrian called for a stop once they were a few hundred meters from it.

"Raphtalia," he said, turning towards her, "these ones are yours to fight if you wish it. Trystan shall be your back-up but you'll be the one on point. It's a small troop of Skeletal Knights."

She nodded, feeling a slight thrill of anticipation, she knew that she was stronger than these monsters but that knowledge didn't help her feel confident. Instead, she tried to remember her lessons with Nicol, made sure that the grip she had on her sword and shield was fine, took a deep breath and then moved forward towards her target, Trystan a few steps behind her.

They didn't sneak up on the monsters, but they still had the advantage of surprise as the monsters were facing away from them, and she moved towards the Skeletal Knight on the back of their little formation and slashed through its' torso with ease.

The resistance of the bones and leather armour proved to be no match for her sword. She backed off after the first elimination, letting Trystan slam into the Knights, scattering them and ruining their formation. She took advantage of this and took down another Knight, one that had been separated from the group.

By the time she was done Trystan had taken care of the other three survivors.

Raphtalia stopped and realized abruptly that she was actually breathing really quickly, it was odd how the sound of her heartbeat had been negligible until she actually stopped. She took a quick look around, making sure that the Skeletons weren't moving before relaxing a little.

Mr Adrian, Isis and Rifana entered the clearing soon after and she winced as she saw the relieved look on Rifana's face. Her friend must have been scared. It was interesting to see the contrasting expressions on the other two, Mr Adrian simply nodded at her and began to absorb the skeletons while Isis just ignored everything in favour of watching the surroundings.

She had wanted Mr Adrian to compliment her. Raphtalia quickly shook off the thought, it had been stupid to expect the defeat of a couple of monsters to be impressive when Mr Adrian regularly slaughtered hundredsin seconds.

They continued their hunt, Trystan and Isis didn't get any experience as they were at level 40 and Raphtalia reached that level soon as well but Mr Adrian and Rifana kept leveling up. It turned out that because the three of them were at level 40 any experience they earned went to Mr Adrian and Rifana. By the end of the day, Rifana was at level 32 and had already started to eat a lot.

They sat down and had a proper dinner a few hours after sunset, Mr Adrian told them that they'd have to start early tomorrow as they'd have to move to another location, apparently, they'd pretty much depopulated the entire area around Ayrith of monsters. She could tell that he wasn't happy about that. He was still at level 47. He really wanted to get to level 50.

Trystan just sat down in his Filolial King form while Isis climbed on his back and slept there with a quilt. Mr Adrian would be up for the first watch so Raphtalia moved her sleeping bag next to Rifana who had barely spoken a word during Dinner. Even Trystan's best attempts had rarely drawn out a word.

Raphtalia tried not to feel angry at that man. Anger at him always reminded her of what she had done to him and she didn't want to think about him but she couldn't help it. Rifana's silence spoke louder than anything else. It was a brutal reminder that even with him dead nothing had been fixed.

No. Rifana had been saved. That was not something she could let herself forget.

"Goodnight Rifana," she said, lying down after making sure that she was covered up.

Her friend turned towards her and smiled, it was a hesitant smile, not at all like her old smiles but Raphtalia loved it anyway, "Goodnight," she said and closed her eyes, her voice still quiet, but she felt a deep sense of relief. She was talking.

Raphtalia fell asleep holding onto her friend.

She had no nightmares that night. Rifana was not that fortunate.

The next day was spent in battle.

She fought with Isis and Trystan for the most part with Mr Adrian spending most of the time hunting solo trying to reach level fifty. She made a lot of progress, got better at not doing stupid or necessary actions and did her best to apply the lessons that Nicol had taught her.

When they sat down for dinner an hour after sunset she knew that he had not reached level fifty. His frustration was telling. Still, he quickly pulled out some really tasty food, served it to them and started eating quickly. Raphtalia shook her head at his impatience but she understood. Teleportation was something he really wanted.

She turned her attention to Rifana who was eating her food ravenously.

"Is it good?" she asked, keeping her voice light.

Rifana nodded, barely taking her eyes off the food while eating.

Raphtalia smiled, "Good." she said, glad to see that she was at least eating properly even if it wasdue to extreme hunger. Rifana had spent most of her day riding on Trystan or Isis while nibbling on something or the other but she knew how easy it was to get hungry again when leveling up rapidly.

"Father!" she heard Isis say urgently, "someone really strong is coming closer!"

Mr Adrian stood up immediately, absorbing his food and releasing the Disc in a single smooth motion. Raphtalia picked up Rifana, the sudden movement dislodging her grip on the plate she was holding which made her cry out a little before she stifled the protest, and jumped onto the Disc.

Mr Adrian, Trystan and Isis joined her and they were above the forest floor in seconds.

"Direction?" asked Mr Adrian.

"There!" said Isis pointing East, "they're really far away but I can still feelthem. Their mana is a lot stronger than your father."

Adrian quickly prepared a dozen floating swords and closed his eyes before opening them and focusing on the direction that Isis had pointed out.

"They're close," said Isis. Making Raphtalia tense up. Her grip tightened on her sword.

And then they all heard Mr Adrian laugh, it was not a happy laugh, more like he had been shocked by something. They all blinked when the disc started to descend.

"Father?" asked Isis urgently, "What is it?"

"There is a very, very powerful Filolial Queen coming to meet us," he said, his expression very serious, "running is unnecessary and pointless. Let's all be polite okay?"

All of them nodded hesitantly, his voice had been very firm and very scared as he said his last sentence. As they returned to camp Raphtalia began to wonder just how powerful and dangerous this person must be to scare Mr Adrian.